- @BeaucoupKevin says:
I’m not crazy about DailyKOS, but this short piece about the Texans who want to secede is dead on
- Irony: normally I walk to lunch on Fridays, but time crunch had me driving today. Apparently it’s “car-free Friday.” Oops.
Tag: cars
Christmas Shopping
- Need to sleep. Found myself typing “Satan Claus” by mistake.
- Symptom of car culture: I almost feel like I have to justify crossing the street on foot to go to another store instead of moving the car.
- Sun Halo. All you have to do is look up once in a while.
- Linens & Things: Nothing left to sell but the shelves…
- Almost. Walked around a corner and they do have SOME stuff left
- Virgin Megastore is closing too, but they’ve still got lots of stuff. Including 5000 copies of Serial Mom.
- Replica toys: I get the nostalgia factor, but at the same time it’s a weird idea.
- Going out of business sales seen today: 4. Mervyns, Linens & Things,Virgin, Steve & Barry’s.
- And the more stores I look at, the more “What You Own” competes in my head for the ubiquitous Christmas music.
- Amazon’s wishlist needs a generic option. Like “I want an 8GB Micro-SD card” rather than “I want THIS Micro-SD card specifically!”
Attack of the Clone Vans
There were at least five of them, but I could only fit 3½ in the photo.
Well, that was a wash
I’ve been putting off getting my car washed for several weeks. Over the weekend, I decided I was going to take it to a nearby car wash Monday morning before work. So I did. It was sunny and clear, with a few clouds off to the south that had made for a very nice sunrise earlier this morning.
As I sat there reading, I noticed the sky was getting darker, clouds moving in front of the sun so that I no longer needed my sunglasses. As I got in the car, I realized it had become overcast, and the owner’s remark about “Enjoy this beautiful weather while it lasts” took on an entirely new context.
As I got on the freeway to go to work, I could see rain falling in the distance straight ahead. A few minutes later, I actually saw a bolt of lightning. I don’t think I’ve seen lightning directly in several years. The occasional flashes out of the corner of my eye, sure (and I saw another of those as I pulled off of the exit), but actually seeing the bolt? It’s been a while.
When I got to work, it wasn’t raining, but it was cold and windy. (And here I was in short-sleeved business casual with no jacket.) It clearly had rained, and looked like it might again. Off to the north maybe 1/4 of the sky at most was still blue.
I could swear that when I looked at the weather report yesterday there was no indication of rain.
Quick Thoughts on Gas Mileage
Yesterday the Los Angeles Times ran an article about the fact that, in response to soaring gas prices, smaller cars are outselling light trucks (which include SUVs, pickups, and minivans) in the US for the first time since 1996. Last night I was going through old magazines that we’d just tossed in a bag before moving. I found the September 2006 issue of Westways (the California Auto Club’s magazine), with a cover story about the new breed of small cars, wondering when the market would shift in response to the high prices. Now there’s timing.
On a related note, 9 months of driving a Prius has given me a somewhat different perspective on “good” and “bad” mileage. When I see averages of 38–48 MPG over the course of a tank of gas, and can get up to 60 MPG on straight, flat stretches of freeway, advertisements touting 25–30 MPG just don’t sound that enticing.